Rhetorical Devices in the Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy

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It is according to Aristotle that a speaker or writer has three ways to persuade his audience: The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker; the second is on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind; the third is on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself.

One of the most influential people who made a memorable speech for the past century is President John F. Kennedy, a famous public speaker who wrote an inaugural address that contains a power to persuade a lot of people.

His well-known speech shows how his method of using the art of persuasive written or spoken discourse (Rhetoric) that an author or speaker uses to convey a meaning to the listener or reader contributes to the purpose or theme of his message for his countrymen.

Definition of Terms:

1. Alliteration: Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words that are close to one another.

2. Allusion: A brief or indirect reference to a person, place, event, or passage in a work of literature or the Bible assumed to be sufficiently well known to be recognized by the reader.

3. Amplification: An expansion of detail to clarify a point.

4. Analogy: A comparison between two things in which the more complex is explained in terms of the more simple.

5. Anaphora: Repetition of one or more words at the head of consecutive phrases, clauses, or sentences.

6. Anastrophe: Inversion of word order to mark emphasis.

7. Antimetabole: Reverasal or repeated words or phrases for effect.

8. Antithesis: Contrast within parallel phrases (not to be confused with the ordinary use of the word to mean “extreme opposite”).

9. Assonance: Repetition of vowel sounds between different consonants.

10. Asyndeton: Absence of conjunctions.

11. Chiasmus: The reversal of grammatical order from one phrase to the next.

12. Climax: Consists of arranging words, clauses, or sentences in the order of increasing importance, weight, or emphasis.

13. Conduplication: Resembles anadiplosis in the repetition of a preceding word, but it repeats a key word (not just the last word) from a preceding phrase, clause, or sentence, at the beginning of the next.

14. Consonance: Repetition of identical consonant sounds within two or more words in close proximity.

15. Ellipsis: Any omitted part of speech that is easily understood in context.

16. Ethos: Makes use of what an audience values and believes to be good or true.

17. Hyperbole: Deliberate exaggeration in order to create humor or emphasis.

18. Imagery: Lively descriptions which impress the images of things upon the mind using one or more of the five senses.

19. Logos: appealing to reason in a measured, logical way.

20. Metanoia: The qualification of a statement to either diminish or strengthen its tone.

21. Metaphor: Meaning or identity ascribed to one subject by way of another.

22. Oxymoron: Contraditory terms or ideas are combined.

23. Parallelism: The technique of arranging words, phrases, clauses, or larger structures by placing them side by side and making them similar in form.

24. Paradox: A statement that seems to contradict itself but that turns out to have a rational meaning.

25. Pathos: Appealing to the emotions.

26. Personification: The attribution of human qualities to a nonhuman or inanimate object.

27. Polysyndeton: Insertion of conjunctions before each word in a list.

28. Repetition: Word or phrase used two or more times in close proximity.

29. Rhetorical Question: A question asked for rhethorical effect to emphasize a point, no answer being expected.

30. Sententia: The punctuation of a point with an aphorism.

31. Syntax: The grammatical structure of a sentence; the arrangement of words in a sentence.

32. Tricolon: A series of parallel words, phrases, clauses, or statements.

33. Zeugma: Includes several similar rhetorical devices, all involving a grammatically correct linkage (or yoking together) of two or more parts of speech by another part of speech.

Rhetorical Devices That Are Present In The Inaugural Address of John F. Kennedy:

*Alliteration

• “same solemn” (2nd sentence of the 2nd paragraph)

• “man holds in his mortal hands” (1st sentence of the 3rd paragraph)

• “for which our forebears fought” (2nd sentence of 3rd paragraph)

• “to friend and foe alike” (4th paragraph)

• “whether it wishes us well or ill” (5th paragraph)

• “Pay any price, bear any burden… ” (5th paragraph)

• “the survival and the success of liberty” (5th paragraph)

• “faithful friends” (1st sentence of the 7th paragraph)

• “colonial control” (1st sentence of the 8th paragraph)

• “strongly supporting” (2nd sentence of the 8th paragraph)

• “break the bonds of mass misery” (9th paragraph)

• “sovereign states” (11th paragraph)

• “its writ may run” (11th paragraph)

• “the dark powers of destruction” (12th paragraph)

• “steady spread” (14th paragraph)

• “sincerity is always subject” (15th paragraph)

• “peace preserved” (9th to the last paragraph)

• “bear the burden” (6th to the last paragraph)

• “a grand and global alliance” (5th to the last paragraph)

• “high standards of strength and sacrifice” (1st sentence of the last paragraph)

• “Let us go forth to lead the land we love… ” (2nd sentence of the last paragraph)

*Allusion

• “I have sworn before you and Almighty God.” (2nd sentence of the 2nd paragraph)

• “those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside” (last sentence of the 8th paragraph)

• “those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside” (3rd sentence of the 8th paragraph)

*Anaphora

• “all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life” (1st sentence of the 3rd paragraph)

• “not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right” (1st sentence of the 9th paragraph)

• “To those old allies… To those new states… To those people… To our sister… To that world… to those nations… ” (Paragraphs 7 to 12)

• “We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom” (2nd and 3rd sentences of the 8th paragraph)

• “both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind’s final war” (14th paragraph)

• “not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need–not as a call to battle, though embattled we are–but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out” (6th to the last paragraph)

• “the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet” (8th to the last paragraph)

• “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.” (2nd sentence of the 15th paragraph)

• “ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country” (3rd to the last paragraph)

*Climax

• “All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet.” (8th to the last paragraph)

*Conduplication

• “to help them help themselves” (1st sentence of the 9th paragraph)

• “good words into good deeds” (1st sentence of the 10th paragraph)

• “free men and free governments” (1st sentence of the 10th paragraph)

• “the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace” (11th paragraph)

• “absolute power… absolute control… ” (17th paragraph)

*Consonance

• “Whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall… ” (5th paragraph)

*Ellipsis

• “This much we pledge–and more.” (6th paragraph)

*Ethos

• “Vice President Johnson, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chief Justice, President Eisenhower, Vice President Nixon, President Truman, Reverend Clergy, fellow citizens: We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom–symbolizing an end as well as a beginning–signifying renewal as well as change.” (Paragraphs 1 & 2)

• “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility–I welcome it.” (4th to the last paragraph)

• “With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.” (last sentence of the last paragraph)

*Hyperbole

• “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” (5th paragraph)

*Imagery

• “The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.” (4th paragraph)

• “new states whom we welcome to the ranks of the free” (1st sentence of the 8th paragraph)

• “people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery” (1st sentence of the 9th paragraph)

• “that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations” (11th paragraph)

• “nations who would make themselves our adversary” (12th paragraph)

*Metanoia

• “Now the trumpet summons us again–not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need–not as a call to battle, though embattled we are–but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation”–a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.” (6th to the last paragraph)

*Metaphor

• “We are the heirs of the first revolution.” (1st sentence of the 4th paragraph)

• “Let the word go forward from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans… ” (2nd sentence of the 4th paragraph)

• “riding the back of the tiger” (3rd sentence of the 8th paragraph)

• “the bonds of mass misery” (9th paragraph)

• “the chains of poverty” (1st sentence of the 10th paragraph)

• “evolution of hope” (2nd sentence of the 10th paragraph)

• “master of its own house” (last sentence of the 10th paragraph)

• “balance of terror” (14th paragraph)

• “And if a beachhead of cooperation may push back the jungle of suspicion… ” (20th paragraph)

• “The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it–and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.” (4th to the last paragraph)

• “We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom–symbolizing an end as well as a beginning signifying renewal as well as change.” (1st sentence of the 2nd paragraph)

• “born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage” (2nd sentence of the 4th paragraph)

• “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” (5th paragraph)

• “Let both sides explore what problems unite us… Let both sides, for the first time, formulate serious and precise proposals for the inspection and control of arms… Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science… Let both sides unite… ” (Paragraphs 6 to 9)

• “United there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided there is little we can do… ” (2nd and 3rd sentences of the 7th paragraph)

• “If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.” (2nd sentence of the 9th paragraph)

• “sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond” (2nd sentence of the 13th paragraph)

*Paradox

• “Only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.” (2nd sentence of the 13th paragraph)

*Pathos

• “To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery… ” (1st sentence of the 9th paragraph)

• “he graves of young Americans who answered the call toservice surround the globe” (7th to the last paragraph)

• ” The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it–and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.” (4th to the last paragraph)

*Personification

• “With history the final judge of our deeds” (2nd sentence of the last paragraph)

*Polysyndeton

• “where the strong are just and the weak secure and the peace preserved” (9th to the last paragraph)

*Repetition

• “For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life.” (1st sentence of the 3rd paragraph)

*Rhetorical Question

• “Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?” (5th to the last paragraph)

• “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” (2nd to the last paragraph)

*Tricolon

• “We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom–symbolizing an end as well as a beginning signifying renewal as well as change.” (1st sentence of the 2nd paragraph)

• “not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need–not as a call to battle, though embattled we are–but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out” (6th to the last paragraph)

*Zeugma

• “Now the trumpet summons us again–not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need–not as a call to battle, though embattled we are–but a call to bear the burden… ” (6th to the last paragraph)

Encapsulation of Findings:

John F. Kennedy used 33 different types of rhetorical devices in his inaugural speech. The most dominant rhetorical device that he used was the usage of alliteration.

Conclusion:

Through extensive analysis, it can be seen that it is evident that he has a goal of getting the audience’s attention to listen and to understand his points in a meaningful way in the fields of writing and speaking.